Zhang hands Suarez 1st loss in dominant UFC title defense

Zhang Weili defeated Tatiana Suarez via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45) to retain the UFC strawweight title in the UFC 312 co-main event Saturday night at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Zhang became the first to beat Suarez, who fell to 10-1 as a professional.

The Chinese fighter successfully defended the belt for the fourth time and is now tied with Joanna Jedrzejczyk for most title fight wins in strawweight history (six).

"I respect Tatiana," Zhang said in her postfight interview. "Tatiana is very strong."

Suarez, who won "The Ultimate Fighter 23" in 2016, came up short in her first bid for UFC gold.

The former world-class wrestler won the first round on all three judges' scorecards. Suarez took Zhang down 45 seconds into the fight and controlled her for most of the stanza.

But Zhang took over in Round 2 and never looked back. She stopped Suarez's takedown attempts and dominated the challenger in the stand-up department. Zhang outlanded Suarez 53-12 in significant strikes over five rounds.

Zhang even scored a takedown of her own in the fourth, becoming the first to take Suarez down in the UFC. Zhang amassed over 10 minutes of control time on the ground. She attempted an arm-triangle choke in the fourth round but Suarez defended it.

One judge gave Zhang a 10-8 in the fifth round as the 35-year-old sealed the dominant victory.

Zhang is now riding a five-fight winning streak. She began her second stint as the 115-pound titleholder in November 2022 and has since defended the strap three times. Zhang originally captured the title in 2019. She hasn't lost a fight since a rematch with Rose Namajunas in November 2021.

Suarez had won seven in a row in the Octagon coming in. The 34-year-old California native has fought just three times since 2019, with multiple injuries and health issues shelving her for long stretches of time.